Here's the Hope Six Demolition Project
Stretching down to Benning Road
A well-known "pathway of death"
At least that's what I'm told
And here's the one sit-down restaurant
In Ward Seven, nice
OK, now this is just drug town, just zombies
But that's just life
In the Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope
Here's the highway to death and destruction
South Capitol is it's name
And the school just looks like shit-hole
Does that look like a nice place?
Here's the old mental institution
Now the Homeland Security Base
And here's God's Deliverance Centre
A deli called M.L.K
And The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here
The Ministry Of Defense
This is the Ministry Of Defence
Stairs and walls are all that's left
Mortar holes let through the air
Kids do the same thing everywhere;
They've sprayed graffiti in Arabic
And balanced sticks in human shit
This is the ministry Of remains
Fizzy drinks cans and magazines
Broken glass, a white jawbone
Syringes, razors, a plastic spoon
Human hair, a kitchen knife
And a ghost of a girl who runs and hides
Scratched in the wall in biro pen
"This is how the world will end"
There's the bus depot to the right
Levelled like a building site
Those are the children's cries from the dark
These are the words written under the arch
Scratched in the wall in biro pen
"This is how the world will end"
A Line In The Sand
How to stop the murdering? By now we should have learned
If we don’t then we’re a sham, bad overwhelms the good
Bad overwhelms the good
What I’ve seen, yes it’s changed how I see humankind
I used to think progress was made, we could get something right
We could get something right
Enough is enough
A line in the sand
Seven or eight thousand people
Killed by hand
They stepped off the edge
They did not step back
If we have not learnt
By now then we’re a sham
When we first got to the camp supplies were not enough
I saw a displaced family eating a cold horse's hoof
A cold horse's hoof
We sent up tents, brought in water, air drops were dispersed
I saw people kill each other just to get there first
Just to get there first
Enough is enough
A line in the sand
Seven or eight thousand people
Killed by hand
They stepped off the edge
They did not step back
If we have not learnt
By now then we’re a sham
What we did? Why we did? I make no excuse
We got things wrong, but I believe we also did some good
Chain Of Keys
Fifteen keys
Fifteen keys hang on a chain
The chain is joined
The chain is joined and forms a ring
The ring is in
The ring is in a woman's hand
She's walking on
She's walking on the dusty ground
The dusty ground's a dead-end track
The neighbours won't be coming back
Fifteen gardens overgrown
Fifteen houses falling down
The woman's old
The woman's old and dressed in black
She keeps her hands
She keeps her hands behind her back
Imagine what
Imagine what her eyes have seen
We ask but she
We ask but she won't let us in
A key so simple and so small
How can it mean no chance at all?
A key, a promise, or a wish
How can it mean such hopelessness
"A circle is broken", she says
"A circle is broken", she says
River Anacostia
Oh my Anacostia
Do not sigh, do not weep
Beneath the overpass
Your Savior's waiting patiently
Walking on the water
Flowing with the poisons
From the naval yard
He's talking to the broken reeds
Saying "What will become of us?"
"What will become of us?"
Wade in the water
God's gonna trouble the water
A small, red sun makes way for night
Trails away like a tail light
Is that Jesus on the water
Talking to the fallen trees?
Saying "What will become of us?"
"What will become of us?"
Wade in the water
God's gonna trouble the water
Near The Memorials To Vietnam And Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
At the refreshments stand
A boy throws out his hands
As if to feed the starlings
But really he throws nothing
It's just to watch them jump
See the people coming
Lumbering over the grass
To squeeze into plastic chairs
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
Three notes, a bugle call
A black man in overalls
Arrives to empty the trash
Hauls it to a metal hatch
A doorway opens up
To the underworld
The boy throws empty hands
And the starlings jump
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
All near the memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln
The Orange Monkey
A restlessness took hold my brain
And questions I could not hold back
An orange monkey on a chain
On a bleak uneven track
Told me that to understand
You must travel back time
I took a plane to a foreign land
And said, "I'll write down what I find"
Beneath a mountain's jagged shelves
Cloaked with snow and shadows sheer
Plates tipped up upon themselves
The pain of fifty million years
And mules and goats were running wild
A happy chaos carried on
And old men and the young boys smiled
And worked until the day was gone
Packs of sandy-coloured dogs
Walked streets that looked like building sites
But piles of rocks and dust and smog
Could not block out a different light
When I returned I ran to meet
The monkey, but his face had changed
He stood before me on two feet
The track was now a motorway
Medicinals
I was walking through the National Mall
Thinking about medicinals, how they used to grow there
When the ground was a marshland undisturbed by human hands
And I heard their voices
The Sumac said "We're always here"
The Witch Hazel - "We're always here"
Sassafras - "We're always here"
The bluestem grasses "Always here"
I looked about, and what did I see?
Medicinals grow around me, rising from the gravel
Sumac and the Witch Hazel
Come to soothe our pain ourselves, come to soothe our troubles
The Sumac said "We're always here"
The Witch Hazel - "We're always here"
Sassafras - "We're always here"
The bluestem grasses "Always here"
But do you see that woman
Sitting in the wheelchair?
With her Redskins cap on backwards
What's that she's singing?
As from inside a paper wrapper
She sips from a bottle
A new painkiller
For the native people
The Ministry Of Social Affairs
See them sitting, in the rain
As the sky is darkening
Three lines of traffic are edging past
The Ministry of Social Affairs
At a junction, on the ground
An amputee and a pregnant hound
Sit by the young men with withered arms
As if death had already passed
Through every alleyway, and left
A million beggars' silhouettes
Near where the money-changers sit
By their locked glass cabinets
What has happened? Let's go and ask
The Ministry of Social Affairs
Near where the money-changers sit
By their locked glass cabinets
That's what they want, oh yeah
Money, honey
That's what they want, oh yeah
Money, honey
The Wheel
A revolving wheel of metal chairs
Hung on chains, squealing
Four little children flying out
A blind man sings in Arabic
Hey little children don’t disappear (I heard it was 28,000)
Lost upon a revolving wheel (I heard it was 28,000)
Now you see them, now you don’t
The children vanish ‘hind a vehicle
Now you see them, now you don’t
Faces, limbs, a bouncing skull
Hey little children don’t disappear (I heard it was 28,000)
Lost upon a revolving wheel (I heard it was 28,000)
A faded face, the trace of an ear (I heard it was 28,000)
A tableau of the missing
Tied to the government building
A thousand sun-bleached photographs
Fading with the roses
Hey little children don’t disappear (I heard it was 28,000)
Lost upon a revolving wheel (I heard it was 28,000)
All that’s left after a year (I heard it was 28,000)
A faded face, the trace of an ear (I heard it was 28,000)
And watch them fade out
And watch them fade out
And watch them fade out
And watch them fade out
Dollar, Dollar
A boy stares through the glass
He's saying "Dollar, dollar"
Three lines of traffic past
We're trapped inside our car
His voice says "Dollar dollar"
I turn to you and ask
For something we could offer
Three lines of traffic pass
We pull away so fast
All my words get swallowed
In the mirror glass
A face pock-marked and hollow
Saying "Dollar, dollar"
I can't look through or past
A face saying "Dollar, dollar"
A face pock-marked and hollow
Staring from the glass
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